Cartwheeling Youngster is part of the Foreshore Public Art Program curated by Amanda Sharrad along Sydney Harbour, that also includes major public artworks by First Nations artist Brook Andrew and Chinese artist Lu Xinjian. An extension of Caroline Rothwell's well-loved public artwork Youngster in Barracks Street, Cartwheeling Youngster embraces the freedom and space of the foreshore expanse along the harbour. Providing a poetic dimension to the experience of the water’s edge, the artwork celebrates the energy, renewal, growth and potential of a new community. The artist brief provided by Amanda required artists to enhance the foreshore and reveal rich layers of meaning around the site’s ecological renewal and relationship to water.

Caroline Rothwell's six bronze sculptures represent a youngster cartwheeling, in six various rotations along a kilometer stretch of foreshore. Some figures are at the water's edge, others amongst the trees, visually connecting and truncating the promenade expanse. Frozen in motion the dark figures produce unexpected silhouettes against the shimmering water, making us re-engage with our surroundings as we come across them. 

Each sculpture is about the size of an eight year old child in contemporary clothing based on that of local students, interspersed with casts of local botanic and mineral specimens subtly included into details such as a pocket or tread of a shoe. While celebrating regeneration, the hoodies are also laden with the weight of cast minerals referring to the environmental burden we place on the next generation due to our reliance upon mineral wealth. But to prepare for this awesome task, the strength of material and motion transforms the youngster into something powerful and purposeful.

Amanda worked closely with Caroline Rothwell and her team to drive, facilitate and manage the artwork commission, development, fabrication and installation through to completion.

Images: Canada Bay Council / Amanda Sharrad